Green Homes

Recent Features

There really is no greater remodeling challenge than green historic preservation. After a 25-year career in East-coast remodeling and then Colorado production homebuilding, Jeff Medanich is tying together all this experience in his green retrofit work at Chautauqua.

Historic preservation meets green building at the residential scale in the addition and renovation of our cottage in South Miami. Located in the Cambridge Lawns Historic District, the cottage was part of the LEED for Homes pilot program and achieved Gold Level certification while maintaining the character and scale of the surrounding historic district.

Architect Richard Renner and his wife Janet Friskey, a graphic designer, wanted a commute in downtown Portland, Maine that involved just a flight of stairs. “We jumped at the opportunity to purchase an old clothing store with an apartment above,” says Richard.

That turned out to be the easy part. “Our goals for the first-floor office and residence loft were an efficient building envelope, plenty of daylighting to the interior, and open floor plans for both spaces. And while we were at it, make the loft a LEED for Homes Platinum gut rehab.”

Don Marx is a very busy man for a guy who is “retired.” But as Chair of Construction on the Habitat for Humanity Buffalo Board, he manages as many as 12 whole-house renovations and 4 new homes a year. That’s supervising 8,000 volunteer labor hours for each renovation and 4,000 hours for each new home. And all of Don’s hours are in that total; he is a volunteer himself.